CWG

The disaster that is India's preparation for the Commonwealth games keeps escalating in embarassment.

After creditably hosting the Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982 under the inspired leadership of a rising Rajiv Gandhi, India might have expected to stage a memorable show with the CWG nearly three decades later. But the script has gone tragi-comically sour. At something like Rs. 30,000 crore of the taxpayers' money, the Games are the most expensive sports event hosted by India. It is certainly an extortionate price to pay in exchange for shame and disgrace.


It is not so surprising that the Government is worse at doing things today than it was 30 years ago. India's best governments were its first ones. Things have been on an accelerating downward path since. The saving grace is the goverment doing less and less. But what about areas where the government cannot be replaced? What about the Millitary, the Police, the Regulatory agencies and the Judiciary? Can a country possibly do an end run around these agencies and develop? It seems unlikely.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nazi Sympathizers in Britain

An illuminating article by Christopher Hitchens about how both the abdicating King Edward and the new King George were and remained Nazi sympathizers well after the Czech sellout. Hitchens cannot resist needling Churchill too. But Churchill's seems to have been found guilty mostly by association with King Edward, not because of any explicit Nazi sympathies. Here is however a funny line about how Churchill once called himself the lone warrior against the twin evils of Hitler and Gandhi! Hitchens is obviously disgusted with the British Monarchy and end the article by with memorable flourish. Almost the entire moral capital of this rather odd little German dynasty is invested in the post-fabricated myth of its participation in "Britain's finest hour." In fact, had it been up to them, the finest hour would never have taken place. So this is not a detail but a major desecration of the historical record—now apparently gliding unopposed toward a baptism by Oscar.
Read more

A historical perspective of India

Excerpts from what promises to be a brilliant book by Ramachandran Guha. The great 19th-century poet Ghalib thought that God was indeed on the side of India. All around him there was conflict and privation, but doomsday had not yet come. "Why does not the Last Trumpet sound?", asked Ghalib of a sage in the holy city of Benares. "Who holds the reins of the Final Catastrophe?" he continued. This was the answer he got: The hoary old man of lucent ken Pointed towards Kashi and gently smiled. 'The Architect,' he said, 'is fond of this edifice Because of which there is colour in life; He Would not like it to perish and fall.'
Read more

Indian Elections

In the recent elections in the North East, one election official dejectedly told the media how the politicians undermine the people's faith in democracy for 5 years and the Election Commission does its best to restore it, if only for the one day on which polling happens. This detailed and interesting article by Mr. Gopalaswami, Chief Election Commissioner of India about the recent election in UP is inspiring in that it restored my faith in the ability of our Government organisations to do their job exceptionally well. Since bogus voting can be largely prevented only if the identity of the voters is correctly established, a massive attempt was made to issue Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC). Between December 2006 and the second week of April, 2007, a total of 2.69 crore EPICs were issued covering 22% of the electorate throughout the state, raising the coverage to an average of 80% in the state. As many as 85% voters who turned up to vote produced the EPIC as identity while the
Read more